Communication networks such as the Internet have recently experienced dramatic growth in popularity and use. An advantage of the Internet that has helped to fuel this growth is the availability of quick and easy communication between widely disparate individuals and networks regarding virtually limitless topics. Thus, not only does the Internet provide for traditional communication, such as between a pair of friends, relatives or coworkers, but the Internet also facilitates communication between strangers and groups of strangers.
Chat is one of the various relatively new forms of communication provided by the Internet. Chat in this sense does not refer to audible conversation engaged in by people gathered together in one place, but rather to textual conversations between people that are connected by the Internet to the same chat room, which may be a file on a server. In this case, a participant in such a chat room types a message into his or her computer and the message virtually immediately appears on all the other computers connected to that chat room.
One of the most popular ways to chat via the Internet is called Internet Relay Chat (IRC). IRC employs special IRC servers that run the chat rooms, and special client/server software that allows client computers to send and receive chat via the IRC servers. The IRC servers may be connected together as a network. Various client computers from around the world may be connected via the Internet to these chat rooms, allowing conversations between disparate individuals who may typically never meet or know each other outside of the chat room experience.
It is common for a chat room to be related to a particular topic, with the participants attracted to that chat room by their interest in the topic. While many chat rooms exist regarding various topics, one popular theme for chat rooms is mass entertainment, such as television shows. Thus, chat rooms may exist devoted to a popular television show, such as “The Simpsons®.” Typically, viewers are forced to choose whether to watch television or to participate in a chat room, since most Internet connections are not provided by a television but rather by a separate device such as a computer that may be disposed at a separate location from the television. Moreover, both the television and the computer may be generally immobile, such as with a personal computer located on a desk in a study and a television located in a family room. Thus, many chat participants may converse in a chat room related to a television show before or after the show has played, although some fans may be connected to the chat room while the show is playing.
The advent of interactive television such as provided by WebTV® Networks offers the possibility of being connected to the Internet and watching television simultaneously via a single user interface device. Thus it is possible for a user to be watching a television show and on the same television be connected to a chat room that somehow relates to that show.
FIG. 1 is a diagram of an interactive television system 20 that enhances a television viewing experience by integrating television programming with enhanced content from the Internet or from the broadcaster. The broadcast of a baseball game can, for example, be enhanced by retrieving relevant information (for example, a batter's batting statistics 22) from the Internet and displaying that information at an appropriate point in the baseball game (for example, when the batter 25 is batting). If the batter's batting statistics are already displayed by the broadcast, then statistics 22 may involve the team's standings, or the number of wins needed to clinch a playoff spot, or a variety of other topics that may be accessed via the Internet.
System 20 includes a server 28 maintained by the broadcaster, a broadcasting antenna 30, a receiver unit 33, a television set 35, and an Internet access point 37. Receiver unit 33, which may be a set-top box, includes a receiving antenna 38 and a remote control unit 39. A viewer uses remote control unit 39 to control the receiver unit and/or to interact with interactive television content via the receiver unit. A video link 40 couples receiver unit 33 to television set 35 so that the receiver unit can use the television set as a display device.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of receiver unit 33. TV interface circuitry 42 of the receiver unit 33 includes a tuner that is tuned to receive broadcast television video and to remove a television carrier signal. TV interface circuitry 42 digitizes the video signal after the carrier signal has been removed. Software executed by a digital processor 44 receives the digitized signal from TV interface 42 and decodes and checks the digitized signal for errors. Receiver unit 33 drives the television set 35 via video encoder 46 and audio digital-to-analog converter 48. Digital processor 44 realizes a type of web browser that can access the Internet via a modem 50. Receiver unit 33 includes an infrared interface 52 for receiving infrared transmissions from remote control unit 39. Local storage 55 provides memory for processor 44, and may house a web browsing program, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer® or Netscape Navigator®.
Television video 60 is broadcast over the airwaves from broadcasting antenna 30 to receiving antenna 38 of receiver unit 33. Alternatively, television video may be broadcast via cable or satellite or other known means. The broadcast signal may include digital data. At an appropriate time in the baseball game when the broadcaster wishes batter statistics 22 to be displayed (for example, when batter 25 appears on the television screen), the broadcaster broadcasts a trigger 66 along with the television video 60. Trigger 66 contains a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that identifies an information resource 70 on the broadcaster's server 28 or another server, not shown. In this case, information resource 70 is a web page containing the batter's statistics.
Receiver unit 33 receives trigger 66, accesses the Internet via Internet access point 37, uses the URL from the trigger to retrieve the web page of batter statistics from server 28, and then displays the batter statistics 22. In this way, broadcasters use triggers to have their viewers' receiver units retrieve information from the Internet and display that information in concert with their programming. Receiver unit 33 and television 35 together form a user interface device that is a client of the server 28 while connected to the Internet, similar to a personal computer that is connected to the Internet by an Internet service provider (ISP).
Unlike traditional television, interactive television offers to the viewer the possibility of varying the format of the information being displayed, for example by choosing whether or not to display Internet content along with a television broadcast. While such a complete change in display format between interactive and non-interactive television is currently available, other changes in display format may also be desirable. For example, viewers that are connected to a chat room may wish to change the relative proportion of chat versus television content that is being displayed. This change in proportion of content may occur when a viewer's primary interest changes from watching television to chatting. In other words, a viewer may initially wish to passively observe a small stream of chat while primarily focusing on the television broadcast. Should that viewer wish to become more active in the chat room, perhaps including sending messages to the chat room, the viewer may wish to change the relative proportions of the display screen devoted to chat versus television. Unfortunately, convenient means for changing the proportions of interactive versus television content being displayed are not currently available.